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April 2008
Suspended animation …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PHILIPS ARENA - Just when this series was really starting to get interesting Stu Jackson and the NBA Secret Police have to get involved.
It hasn’t happened yet. But the suspensions resulting from the pushing and shoving that went on during the second quarter of Game 4 is certain to cost at least a couple of guys a chance to compete in Game 5 Wednesday in Boston.
The Hawks could lose Marvin Williams, whose foot was barely touching the floor during the fracas. The Celtics could potentially lose much more - not only did Kendrick Perkins set foot on the floor, but Kevin Garnett shoved Eddie Rush when Rush tried to keep Garnett from going after Zaza Pachulia.
If the league follows the same letter of the law they did last season, when Phoenix lost both Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw in a crucial playoff game against the Spurs, then Williams and Perkins have to be gone for Game 5.
Garnett’s case is a bit tricky, though, in that someone will have to determine the severity of his actions and whether or not it was a blind reaction to the craziness going on around him or if he knew exactly what he was doing when he looked over at Rush, shoved him away and then went back to jawing at Pachulia and the other Hawks on the floor at the time.
Both Jackson and his boss, NBA Commissioner David Stern, were in the building Monday. So they shouldn’t have to spend much time checking the footage to make these decisions (though the league is notorious for waiting a day before rendering a verdict).
My guess, and it’s only a guess, is that they take both Williams and Perkins away and try and justify Garnett’s actions, if only to appear fair to the folks in Beantown.
But if, as Doc Rivers suggested before Game 4, Al Horford’s taunting of Paul Pierce deserved some sort of discipline from the league (didn’t happen), Garnett needs to be tossed for Game 5 for his actions.
Either way, someone will cry conspiracy. The punishment has to fit the crime here, so the sooner the action from the league the better.
What say you?
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Finger pointing (and other stuff)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA -The catalysts for the Hawks Game 3 turnaround Saturday night can’t stop pointing the finger at one another.
Josh Smith swears it’s Al Horford’s fault.
Al Horford insists that Josh Smith is to blame.
No one, it seems, can decide who deserves more of the credit for energizing the Hawks in a must-win situation that could come to define their season.
Horford provided the inspiration video (and his second double double of the series), while Smith provided the explosive opening quarter (27 points, nine rebounds and six assists when it was over) that set the tone for the evening.
What should be clear by now is that the Hawks are a totally different team when they both play the way they did Saturday.
“I really think it starts with Josh,” Horford said. “He’s such an impact player. He just makes great plays. And I think when he makes those types of plays it gets everybody fired up. So I really think it starts with him.”
Smith said seeing the usually reserved Horford talking smack and playing to the crowd is what makes it so fun for him. “That’s how I try to play every night,” he said. “So any time he wants to join me and get things fired up, it’s always a good thing.”
I’ve been yapping about this since last week, to anyone that will listen, but I felt like the only way the Hawks could stir things up was to play through these two guys. With the Celtics locked in on guarding both Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby, there has to be an opening to play through these two young monsters and see if there was any way to shake things up a bit and catch the Celtics off guard. It worked Saturday but imagine things will be noticeably tougher for these two Monday night.
A few notes, a quote or two and several other random observations from a wild and crazy weekend in Hawksville:
— According my counterparts in Boston, and one of my spies stationed in and around the visitor’s locker room, it appears that the Celtics had it out after the game regarding the focus necessary to finish off a team like the Hawks. “We didn’t help each other on offense and we didn’t help each other on defense,” Celtics All-Star guard Ray Allen said. “We still had plays, we made plays. But just the typical Celtic basketball that we played all year, we always helped each other on both ends of the floor. Tonight, we didn’t do a great job of it.”
Even Celtics coach Doc Rivers sounded a bit miffed at his team’s sudden impulse to finish off the Hawks man-to-man rather than as a group. “I told the guys after the game that I thought each guy wanted to win the game by themselves, which you can’t do,” he said. “I like the fact that they wanted to win the game. The only way you’re going to do that is as a team. Even in the end you saw Rajon [Rondo] try to back Mike Bibby down [and got a foul]. That’s not what we do, but that’s what they all did. Rajon tried to win the game for us. Ray wanted to win the game for us. Paul [Pierce] wanted to win the game for us. But we have to win it as a group and that’s how it always has to be.”
— A scout from an Eastern Conference playoff team at Saturday’s game reminded me of one thing that you should never forget. “Average guys tend to come back to reality on the road,” he said. “I don’t mean starters or your All-Stars or anything, but your role players and bench guys. They usually have big games at home and then even out on the road.” I immediately thought of Kendrick Perkins, who looked like a shell of the bruiser we saw in Boston after Horford gave him that ‘bow to the nose early in the game. I happen to love what Perkins does for the Celtics, but my scout friend was right, you can’t count on the same production on the road as you can when a guy like that is playing at home. “Listen, when the Hawks turn that pace up the way they did, Perkins and P.J. Brown can forget it,” he said. “They can’t run up and down that floor like that. It’s a good thing the Celtics have Big Baby and Leon Powe, too. They aren’t ideal for that type of game but they’re better equipped than those other two guys. The Celtics can’t afford to try and play small ball with the Hawks or chase them up and down the floor. KG doesn’t have the same hold on the game like that. Ray and Paul are fine in that style. But KG dominates this team in a half court game. He could get nasty numbers no matter how they play because he’s three inches taller than any other player in the series. But if the Celtics want to finish these boys off, they’ll slow it down.”
— Another beat writer covering the Detroit-Philly series called me minutes ago to make sure I knew that he had cast his Rookie of the Year ballot for Horford (fine choice but I think the big fella’s going to lose out to Kevin Durant in the end). He also wanted me to know that he’s officially ready to hand over the title of “Most Ridiculous Athlete in the League” to Josh Smith. It’s something we do in our free time (all 20 minutes of it), debating stuff like who’s the best this or that. Previously my boy was lobbying hard for Amare Stoudemire (pre and post microfracture surgery). But after finally seeing Josh Smith on TV and not in person (go figure) he’s convinced more than ever that Josh Smith is the guy. “I gotta give it up to young fella,” he said. “I thought he was going to lay that one in and he just kept going up and up and up. I thought he was going to hit his head on the square. That boy’s got the craziest hops in the league.” My pops did him one better last night. He said it looked like JS took off from Decatur on that dunk over Ray Allen. My personal fave was the tomahawk joint on the fast break where he caught the ball in stride, took two steps and was in Condor mode gliding towards the basket. Forgive me John Wooden, but I’m a proponent of the slam dunk in basketball.
— “We were on top of our game. When we play like that I think we’re one of the best teams in the league. We just have to learn how to be more consistent and play like that every night.” - Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson with the craziest line of the day [Sunday] after practice when asked if the Hawks’ success in Game 3 had anything to do with the Celtics feeling too good about their 2-0 lead in the series.
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Respect the focus!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - Watching the Celtics push the Hawks around during the first two games of this playoff series has kicked up all sort of wild, postgame conversations between the so-called know it alls like myself.
Are the Celtics really this good?
Are the Hawks really this bad?
Maybe they should rework the playoff structure and go one through 16 and do away with the eight from each conference setup?
There has to be some explanation for the Celtics being 20 points better than the Hawks both nights despite them playing just decently.
I think I’ve stumbled on to one, having yapped with any and everyone willing to talk about this series that the talking heads swear should be stopped now because of the NBA’s imaginary postseason mercy rule.
The Celtics have busted the Hawks up so far because they actually respect their opponent, something that’s lost a lot of time when there is such a glaring disparity in collective ability.
Seriously, the Celtics don’t even disparage the Hawks under their breath. They don’t dismiss their opponent even when it’s clear to everyone that they could and still probably win this series without so much as a hiccup.
Only the special teams gear up and focus like the Celtics have from training camp to early June. And focused was the word the Celtics were using after their practice Friday, according to my boy Marc Spears, who covers the Celtics for the Boston Globe.
“I’ve seen this team all year long and the practice (Friday) was one of our better practices,” Celtics captain Paul Pierce said after practice in Boston. “We had great focus. [Friday] felt like one of those practices where you’re going into Game 1. I’m excited that the team isn’t resting on our laurels. Even though we are up 2-0, we still got to get a win down in Atlanta, which is going to be tough. Their crowd is going to be into it. They are going to be more confident in their home arena. This team is ready, we’re ready.”
While most teams in the Celtics’ position would start thinking ahead to the Wizards-Cavs series, a drama destined to last longer than this one, the Celtics are locked in on the Hawks, a team they’ve smashed all five times they’ve played them this year.
“We got Atlanta,” Boston coach Doc Rivers told Spears and other reporters in Boston. “What Cleveland and Washington do, we could care less if they got five, six, seven (games in its series). We just focus on one thing. We don’t look ahead. We focus on Atlanta, really, and that’s all we think about.”
It shows.
When I asked the Hawks if there was anything they’ve seen on film that leads them to believe they can attack the Celtics, they admitted that there is no glaring weakness. In fact, there is no hidden weakness.
(“Honestly, to me it’s the intensity level more than anything,” Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson said. “They’ve come out and hit us in the mouth from the start. We’ve got to do the same. But basically, that’s the only real thing that has gotten them over us like that. The way they come out and defend with a lot of energy and intensity … we’ve got to learn how to do the same thing.”)
And the Hawks won’t be the first team to find this out. I learned a few years ago not to crown a champion in April or early May - you remember when the Lakers had four future Hall of Famers on the same roster and got crushed in the NBA Finals by Detroit don’t you?
But when I think of the teams that could solve these Celtics in a seven-game series (Spurs, Pistons, perhaps the Lakers and maybe the Jazz), it’s not a long list. They’ve got the depth, the talent, the coaching, the togetherness (it sounds cooler to me than cohesion) and the focus to get it done.
If you’re a Hawks fan, you’ve got to hope the franchise is taking notes.
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Boston scream party
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BOSTON - While his timing couldn’t have been worse, Mike Bibby had at least one local backer here Wednesday, a day after his inflammatory comments about Celtics fans hit our website and the airwaves.
I spent two hours at a local barbershop (had to get trimmed up man, five days without some maintenance work and I’d have the Josh Childress fro going on), and one of the barbers was adamant about Bibby being right to call out the fans.
“What did he say that wasn’t true,” he said. “They did have bags on their heads last season. I remember the picture they ran in the paper with those three guys wearing brown paper bags. There’s tons of fair-weather fans around here.”
(I apologize for not having the proper inflections so you could get the full feel for how thick a New England accent the man had, but it was as authentic as anything I’ve ever heard. And he stirred the shop up worse than Bibby did the streets.)
Just like there will be plenty of fans at TD Banknorth Garden tonight for Game 2 (aka the Boston scream party) of this playoff series in need of throat lozenges after verbally abusing Bibby until they get dizzy.
The Hawks’ point guard has certainly put himself in the line of fire by cracking the fans. But he didn’t back down one bit Wednesday and in fact, seems delighted that his words struck a chord with so many (Bibby’s comments were the lead story on every local news telecast and the lead sports story in every daily publication in New England).
He will no doubt be a marked man tonight, on and off the court. He can take whatever licks necessary from the fans. Btu he can’t let Rajon Rondo get the best of him again on the floor.
No one is sure what it means, but the Hawks did have two days of the best practice I’ve seen from them all year. They got after each other both days and spent quite a bit of time doing film study, in what had to be a futile effort to locate a weakness in the best team in the NBA.
They won’t lose tonight for lack of preparation, mental or physical (which I think had something to do with the play of the entire team).
It won’t matter anyway, if they lose. Because Bibby will be the easy target (and a well-earned one).
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LIGHT THE FIRE!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BOSTON - Leave it up to Hawks point guard Mike Bibby to light the fire with the Boston fans.
Bibby lit into the Celtics’ fans before practice Tuesday, calling them “bandwagon jumpers.”
“They were kind of loud at the beginning,” he said. “But a lot of these fans are bandwagon jumpers trying to get on this now. I played here last year, too. And I didn’t see three fourths of them. They’re for the team now and they might get a little rowdy but that’s about it.”
When asked if he thought they were fair-weather fans, joining the party only after the Celtics’ offseason trades that brought Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to town, Bibby didn’t hesitate to pour more gasoline on the fire.
“You could say that,” he said. “I remember them having bags on their heads [last year]. It’s a different look. I guess that’s what happens when you win.”
Bibby and Josh Smith were the most noticeable targets of a small section of fans at TD Banknorth Garden Sunday night. They got into a verbal sparring match with some of the crowd as they left the floor at the end of Game 1.
“It’s good that they know I’m here,” Bibby said. “It was just a little confrontation to get them involved a little bit. But they are fair-weather fans if you ask me.”
If Bibby thought things were sticky Sunday (he shot 2-for-10 from the floor and had just five points and one assist in the Hawks’ 23-point loss), they ought to be downright wicked Wednesday night.
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PUSH IT!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Boston - Forget shocking the world (the Philadelphia 76ers did that already anyway).
The Hawks need to focus now on just making this series respectable.
They need to concentrate on not being laughed out of the playoffs by the basketball public after Sunday’s brutal showing against the Celtics.
The only chance the Hawks have of doing that is by finally accepting who and what they are (and undersized but uber athletic bunch that is at its best when they play at a frazzled offensive pace and gamble on the defensive end, hoping that their quickness and length will allow them to disrupt the passing lanes and force the opposition out of their comfort zone long enough to take advantage of the craziness).
We saw it in spurts Sunday, namely during the second quarter stretch were the Hawks rallied from an early 14-point deficit to get to within a basket, with 10 minutes to play and the Celtics looking like they wanted no part of an up and down affair.
But the flashes were so brief and so far and few between that you needed Blue Blockers to see them.
The bottom line, just like it was for the 76ers months ago when they reinvented themselves on the fly, is that flawed teams have to come up with a style that suits them best.
Philly was down 15 points to the Pistons playing the exact same gambling style that carried them out of that hole and to victory. And therein lies the beauty of their approach, win or lose, you play to your strengths.
The Hawks, stubbornly, have refused to embrace the obvious all season long … something about “you have to defend and rebound to run otherwise blah, blah, blah.”
It’s not often that I agree with a card-carrying member of the Republican Party on anything. But TNT analyst Charles Barkley said it (loudest and as well as any of us ever have) Sunday night when he said this about the Hawks:
“Obviously the Celtics are the better team, but the Atlanta Hawks are one of the more athletic teams in this league,” Barkley said. “They really struggle in the half-court set and they really don’t have a go-to guy. Not just this year, but also for the future, they have to play at a much faster pace.”
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Crazy like a … Woodson?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Editor’s Note: Commenting on this blog has been closed. To continue the conversation, join Mark Bradley’s Monday morning column recapping last night’s Game 1 of the Hawks-Celtics series.
Boston - Mike Woodson is either the most delusional coach in the history of NBA basketball or missing his calling on the $400-a-plate rubber chicken circuit.
Because he’s talking championship with his team set to face the league-leading Boston Celtics in a first-round playoff matchup just hours from now, while the rest of the [real] world expects his team’s season to end in the next four games.
Everything Woodson’s done up to this point screams title chase - from the photocopied images of the Larry O’Brien trophy taped to the inside wall of all his players’ lockers to the diamond-dripping finger weight he’s wearing around town now, courtesy of his championship run with Detroit in 2004 as Larry Brown’s top assistant.
I don’t know if you should admire the guy for believing in the unbelievable or help sign the petition to get him committed for the same the thing.
On paper this series shouldn’t even be close. One team ripped off a league-best 66 wins this season while the other slid into the playoffs on its backside with a meager 37 wins.
But maybe Woodson is counting on the Celtics’ five-year playoff drought being a bigger deal than anyone else. Maybe he sees chinks in the Celtics’ Teflon armor that the rest of us haven’t seen. Or maybe, just maybe, Woodson is crazy enough to think his team can pull off the unthinkable.
He’s already succeeded in baiting Celtics coach Doc Rivers (with the aid of certain member of the Boston media) into a verbal debate about which team has the most to lose in this series.
When peppered about this by reporters Saturday, Rivers got heated.
“They have the series to lose,” Rivers told reporters. “They have the same thing to lose that we do. I love when people say they have nothing to lose. That’s a bunch of [expletive]. They have just as much to lose as us. If they lose this series, they’re going to really disappointed. If we lose this series, we’re going to be really disappointed. I’ve been the eighth seed as a coach and an eighth seed as a player, I thought the same pressure as the first seed. You want to win that series.”
Sorry Doc.
But you’re wrong.
So wrong you make Woodson seem like the sane one coach in this series.
Anything over four games is a victory for these Hawks, at least in basketball’s court of public opinion.
Anything over five games will send shockwaves through the NBA ranks. A Hawks win in this series (play along here, folks, be nice to the crazy coach) and this city gets tossed upside down by fire-breathing Celtics fans that will expect Rivers to be shipped out of town on the first thing smoking.
There’s no shortage of motivation for either team (or either coach for that matter).
One just happens to be in close touch with visitors from another dimension while the other would just as soon get rid of these visitors as quickly as possible.
Problem is, the only thing we’ll know for sure after tonight, is that somebody is three wins away from either shocking the world or doing exactly what they were supposed to do.
National exposure time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After years of yearning for a national stage, the Hawks are guaranteed four prime-time national TV dates now that the schedule is set for their playoff series with Boston:
Game 1 - Sun April 20 Atlanta at Boston 8:30PM TNT
Game 2 - Wed April 23 Atlanta at Boston 8:00PM TNT
Game 3 - Sat April 26 Boston at Atlanta 8:00PM ESPN/R
Game 4 - Mon April 28 Boston at Atlanta 8:00PM TNT
Game 5 * Wed April 30 Atlanta at Boston TBD TBD
Game 6 * Fri May 2 Boston at Atlanta TBD TBD
Game 7 * Sun May 4 Atlanta at Boston TBD TBD
- if necessary
They better show better in the playoffs than they did in the last three (really the last two) games of the regular season. The Hawks were brutal last night against a Heat team that looked more D-League than it did NBA (if it weren’t for those wholesome Heat dancers, the finest collection of female performance artists I’ve seen this season, I’d have covered my eyes rather than watch the train wreck on the American Airlines Arena floor).
As should have been expected, the Hawks struggled with their motivation (had the subs started and played a majority of the minutes we might have seen a bit different game and outcome).
The Hawks are gambling that they can just flip the playoff switch and get it going against the Celtics - “These games don’t matter,” Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson said after the game. “We accomplished our goal and these last two games, just throw them in the bag and don’t even worry about them. We just have to be ready to get up and go for the playoffs.” - but I’m not so sure it’s going to be that easy for the youngest playoff team in the field.
After seeing the way the Hawks finished the regular season, they’re going to need a monumental effort in Game 1 to convince me that they’re capable of doing anything close to what they think they’re going to do.
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Beantown bound!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - That was some win that finally pushed the Hawks into the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade (fine, nine seasons but a decade sounds smoother).
The Hawks can thank the Wizards for doing the dirty work, a 117-110 win that eliminated the Indiana Pacers from playoff contention shortly after 9:30 p.m. Monday.
And to be honest, there’s no reason to fret over how they got in. The Hawks (despite all their failures) worked hard to get here. So not even a cynic like me (or even that rascal Blog Z) can knock them for the potholes they fell into along the way.
Show them (especially the players) some love for having the guts to get up off the canvas two months ago and make this push (the Hawks have gone 15-13 during this late season push with two games to play).
Give them some love for getting here despite all the hurdles, self inflicted and otherwise.
“This is a testament to the hard work and determination that those guys [in the locker room] have put into this season,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said Monday, spending extra time praising his players for toiling under at-times ridiculous circumstance with all the off-the-court foolishness that has gone on for what seems like forever. “This is huge for us, not only as a franchise, but for the city of Atlanta and all of our fans. We’re going to get a chance to experience playoff basketball here and that’s a special, special thing.”
The players knew as much Monday afternoon, long before the Wizards put the finishing touches on their hand-engraved invitation to the postseason.
But they weren’t willing to cast off these last two games as meaningless just because there was a chance their fate could be decided without them actually having to play anything.
“We still have work to do in order to finish this season off right,” Josh Smith said, “but the beautiful thing is that no matter what we’ve been through or how people have talked bad about us, we’ve accomplished our original goal by making the playoffs. Now it’s about not letting this be it. We’ve got to be hungry for more.”
Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson wanted to make the playoffs as much for that reason as he did for the rest of his teammates (well, all but Mike Bibby, who also has tasted the intoxicating flavor of the playoffs before).
“For a lot of these guys, they really don’t understand what the playoffs is all about until they experience it for themselves,” Johnson said. “These guys need to feel that, that’s when they’ll realize just how special it is to get [here]. Once they feel that, they’ll get that same hunger to get back there that I’ve had since I got here. It’s the same thing that has to drive us in that [first round series with Boston] and the same thing that has to drive us in the future.”
It’s also the same thing that drove Johnson and his teammates to this point, no matter how bumpy the ride has been.
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Message(s) sent!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - The Hawks might have lost the game Saturday night, but they succeeded in delivering two very clear messages to the league’s best team and their probable first-round opponent in the playoffs.
They won’t go quietly into the dark if they do indeed attain this playoff berth they can’t seem go get their hands around.
They have absolutely no chance of pulling off a shocker the way Golden State did in last year’s wild NBA postseason.
The reason for the latter should have been abundantly clear to anyone watching Saturday’s game - an entertaining affair for most of the night, especially the dramatic and emotionally taxing final eight minutes.
While the Hawks have abandoned their bench since their horrid performance in Memphis two weeks ago, the Celtics clearly intend to ride their reserves’ backs deep into the title hunt.
I’ve debated whether or not the Hawks have adequate resources to work with on the bench with just about everyone I’ve come in contact with the past two months (including repeated back-and-forths with members of the Hawks’ coaching and front office staffs). I’m in the camp that say they do but that the reserve unit hasn’t been cultivated properly.
Now are they a championship-caliber second unit? Well, of course not. But with a collective playoff record of 0-0, why would anyone expect them to be? Last time I checked the Hawks were trying to make the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade, not win a title. Would I trade the Celtics’ bench for the Hawks’ bench straight up … well, yeah, so long as Sam Cassell is included.
Back to reality, the Hawks’ reserves aren’t the best group in the league by any stretch, but they’re capable of spelling the Hawks’ starters when need be, something that hasn’t happened recently.
A whopping six players played in the second half Friday in New York. SIX in a game the Hawks led by 21 points at one time. There’s no way that’s supposed to happen. Not this late in a season that the Hawks have a chance of extending by at least four more games.
This notion that the Mike Bibby trade depleted the Hawks’ reserve unit in February is another bit of local folklore that needs to be edited here. The Hawks’ bench mob wasn’t a consistent force before then. They were more experienced, with the likes of Tyronn Lue and Lorenzen Wright available. They were probably more talented, too, at least on paper (though, I can’t for the life of me figure out how Acie Law IV could be the No. 11 pick in a draft and not find his way to the floor anytime over the last four games or how Jeremy Richardson could be signed for the remainder of the season and then be left to style in a warm up every night without so much as playing 30 seconds here or there to help the cause. And I won’t even touch the Salim Stoudamire issue. It just makes no sense).
But they weren’t being utilized any more consistently then than this current group is now.
I keep hearing “they’re not ready” or “they’re not playing with any confidence” or “they’re not capable” and honestly, I’ve heard enough (call me crazy, but I didn’t grow up hearing about what it was I could not do. So I’ve just never understood that form of negligent - and yes, I mean negligent, not negative - reinforcement).
The bottom line is this; if guys keep hearing what they can’t do, pretty soon they’ll start believing the message.
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Hope they saved some for the Knicks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
NEW YAWK CITY - It’s fight night at Madison Square Garden.
In the blue corner, fighting out of the Sunshine State, a 6-10, 235-pound jab specialist, Solomon Jones.
And in the red corner, fighting out of Georgia (not Ray’s “Gaaawguh” the other one), at 6-11 and 275-pounds, the long lost third Klitschko brother, Zaza Pachuuuuuulia!
Seriously, though, of all the days to be stuck on an early morning Delta flight (I was supposed to be on the early one to LaGuardia but somehow ended up on the 10:40), I choose this day, when the fists finally start flying between two Hawks (I’m gonna be sick all weekend knowing that I missed a slap-boxing match I could have done the play-by-play for).
I’ve been wondering how in the world a team goes this long without someone jaw-jackin’ someone else (Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams came close in practice earlier this season but no one ever actually threw a punch). And then they go and do it when I’m at 30,000 feet. I’ve been sick ever since I got off the plane and my voicemail and text message inboxes were overflowing with details of the post-shootaround practice bout between the Hawks’ reserve big men (just hope they save some for the Knicks in tonight’s monumental showdown at the Garden).
Word has it that our friend from Florida got off the cleaner punches. His reach advantage had to be in play and he is a bit more nimble than ZP. I’m told he landed a couple of straight rights to the grill and ZP’s lip was bloodied, but that was the extent of the damage to either guy (I imagine an eight-day road trip this late in a grueling season had to have some sort of impact on both guys. After all, you can only see so much of each other before someone gets tired of someone else).
I’d like to see either one of them be as physical when the Knicks are going to the basket tonight. The Hawks could use some of this bravado, false or otherwise, when the lights are on tonight.
If they cough up another winnable game right now (and Indiana finds a way to win in Philadelphia) the Hawks can toss out the Gatorade in the locker room and get some Maalox.
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How’d you like your egg?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
INDIANAPOLIS - That’s the question that the Hawks should be asking their fans today.
Because they laid an ugly one here, just about an hour ago, losing a 112-98 stinker to an Indiana team still trailing them by two games in the Eastern Conference standings.
I’d love to dissect all the juicy details here, but there are none.
And perhaps I should have expected as much when I checked into my downtown hotel Tuesday and the guy at the front desk wanted to talk playoffs, standing and what needed to happen for “his” Pacers to unseat the Hawks for that eighth spot (fat chance of that happening in Atlanta).
Despite a near empty arena (and people knock Philips Arena) at the start of the game, it was clear which team showed up prepared, focused and ready to wage a nasty battle for this game - here’s a hint, it wasn’t the Hawks.
Sure, they got up early and looked fired up. But just as the adrenaline was wearing off and the real meat of the game set to begin, things became obvious. The Hawks are in deep waters right now and they’ve only got two floaties (guys with the type of experience needed to handle this kind of pressure).
One of the floaties (Mike Bibby) is currently out of air. So that leaves Joe Johnson as the lone ranger for the Hawks, the only dude on the roster with any serious playoff cred to handle what’s at stake here.
All the Hawks’ fire Tuesday night manifested itself in all the wrong ways (Flagrants, technicals, missed layups, turnovers, etc.). They were clearly the team out of sorts when it mattered most.
And yes, it was as ugly in person as it probably looked on the tube.
A brutal effort all around, and one that deserves all the venom you cats can muster here. So have at it.
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Final Daze!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - You can’t help but be intrigued by these final days of the Hawks regular season, can you?
The possibilities (including the twists and turns in the standings) of how things might turn out are enough to keep me in a daze from night to night.
One minute it looks like the Hawks have the eighth spot locked up and then they lose a must-win home game to Philly. Then, of course, they go to Philly the next night and get it back, only to see Indiana creeping up on them on the left.
That sets up Tuesday’s game against the Pacers at Conseco Fieldhouse as the Hawks’ Game of the Century (where are we at now, IV or V?), this week.
They need a win over the Pacers to reach their magic number (39 wins does it) and also to put another game’s worth of distance between them and their chief rival for that eighth spot.
All that said, the Hawks still look like the team to beat for that spot. But they can’t afford any “slippage (a locker room favorite word, one passed down from Mike Woodson)” the rest of the way.
That means finding a way to grind out a win in a tough environment Tuesday night and then again Friday night in New York.
As much as I hate to point out the shortcomings of the past, but I can’t help but think back to the many games the Hawks coughed up this year at a time like this. They gift-wrapped two games against Portland, another against Seattle and many other that if they’d handled business (or had a guy like Mike Bibby on the roster then) they’d already have their playoff slot locked up.
Ifs and buts aren’t going to solve the Hawks’ current dilemma, though. Grinding will. And they don’t need SWAGGER to get this done. They need a STEADY effort on both ends of the floor to get this done.
I know it sounds a bit simplistic. But it is what it is!
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The Bibby Effect
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - “What’s changed about the Hawks the last seven weeks?” someone asked recently. “Why are they such a radically different team now than they were in January and February? What’s changed?”
For all of the questions that don’t have easy answers, this one does.
I like to call it the “Mike Bibby Effect.”
You’ve seen it here lately and watched how it works (Hawks get in trouble and dude goes to work - either shooting them out of it or leading them out of it with his clutch decision making).
It all takes me back to that Feb. 17 entry (Big Thangs Poppin’) when I was explaining why I loved the Bibby deal. Sure, some of you thought I was a bit too giddy about it. But like Ando on one of his tears, I do my research before showing up here with empty rhetoric.
So how about a few flashback excerpts from that original ditty about Bibby:
“Bottom line, Bibby’s a monster. He always has been and always will be, mostly because he’s one of the few cats in the league who not only embraces performing in pressure-packed situations, he thrives on being the man in those situations.
The Hawks needed a point guard like him more than I think anyone realized, well everyone but All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson - whose repeated calls for the franchise to do the right thing and add another veteran threat at a premium position were finally answered.”
A little more …
“For all the hype that surrounded Chris Webber, Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic on those playoff teams that pressed deep into the Western Conference playoffs in Sacramento, Bibby was the catalyst. He was the guy that ran those teams. If you don’t believe it, just look at his playoff stats (averaged 17.9 ppg, 5.6 apg, 3.6 rpg and 1.5 spg (.418 FG%, .366 3FG%, .836 FT%). And he led the Kings to the Western Conference Finals in 2001-02 averaging 20.3 ppg, 5.8 apg, 3.8 rpg and 1.4 spg (.444 FG%, .424 3FG%, .826 FT%) in 16 playoff games).
That, my friends, is balling!
Bibby can score at a high level (he averaged 21.2 points per game just two years ago). And he can dish at a high level (he averaged more than 8.0 assists per game twice in his career). The fact that can do both at the same time is what makes him so valuable to the Hawks right now.
They needed a leader, a guy that would come in and take control of this team and alleviate the pressure on JJ, allowing him to play his game and face fewer gimmick defense designed to stop him.
They got what they needed in Bibby.”
Go back and check the archives if you need to, but this is what I saw at the time (check the archives and you’ll notice that several of our good friends here thought I had sipped a few too many Hurricanes on Bourbon Street during All-Star Weekend).
I talked to my contacts in Sacramento and around the league and they informed me that the Bibby many of us remember from those glory days in Sacto was indeed the same Bibby, albeit a few years older, that was coming to the A.
Turns out they were right.
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NOT AGAIN!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PHILIPS ARENA - As John McEnroe once said, “You cannot be serious!”
That’s what I was saying to myself Wednesday night as the Hawks put the finishing touches on the Toronto Raptors for their fifth straight win.
Not another controversial finish.
For those of you that didn’t watch, this is how it went down:
Down 107-104 with 11.5 seconds to play in regulation, the Hawks get three chances to tie the game and after missed 3-pointers from both Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson, Josh Childress finds Bibby in the corner on an inbounds plays and Bibby drains the shot with .5 of a second to send force overtime. But on the ensuing play, the Raptors somehow sneak T.J. Ford behind the Hawks’ defense and he grabs a lob in the air and lays it in at the buzzer to win the game for the Raptors. Only, he didn’t get the shot off in time (a fact the officials had to clarify via replay). But what they didn’t catch was their own error tenths of a second before that, when the clock started before Ford touched that lob.
There will for sure be an official protest from the Raptors, victims of statistical misfortune for the second time on a trip here (you remember last year’s game where Ford wasn’t credited for a shot in a game that the Raptors went on to lose).
And just like the Miami game earlier this year, there was clearly an error made. Only this time it’s not on the Hawks but on the game officials (wonder how David Stern’s going to rule on this one, ha).
One unidentified member of the Raptors’ traveling party said it best, “It was going to be a close call either way. But we blew another double-digit lead, gave them three chances to tie the game in regulation and then couldn’t contain them in the overtime. So did we really deserve to win this game?”
That’s open for debate. And if the roles were reversed, the Hawks would also be creaming REDRUM! So it’s hard to dismiss it as just a regrettable error. But what else can you do? Nobody wants to see another one of those epic replay games … at least I don’t.
The worst part is that the finish obscures what was a huge night for the Hawks, who inched closer to their first playoff berth in years and who actually are closer now to the three-team cluster in fifth place than they are to the struggling crews holding down the ninth spot in the Eastern Conference playoff chase.
Josh Smith sank those two huge 3-pointers (hate him or love him, the kid is fearless and brings that extra something to the table that few players his size on the planet can) and played fantastic defense on Chris Bosh down the stretch. Bibby was as clutch as ever. And Joe Johnson did his usual, as did Childress, Marvin Williams and Al Horford.
Instead of celebrating this win and what it means, there’s going to be a lot of teeth-gnashing from here to Toronto Thursday, wondering what, if anything, will be done about this game.
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